Last edited Wed Oct 25, 2017, 05:38 PM - Edit history (1)
and how lovely to hear how happy you are with it. You also can't too describe much of that kind of detail for me, including views. That's a big part of why I became a real estate appraiser, to enjoy visiting properties. 
Some of them were up your way. Oh, well.
As you undoubtedly know, just having a plan in place creates peace of mind. An especially good thing when the worry is about something very unlikely to happen. Fire yes, out of control conflagration no.
At least those poor people provided valuable lessons for others. Above all the need for good, constant information, life-threatening surprises not allowed even if it required sleeping in shifts. New awareness of speed beyond anything we'd ever worried about. We're fortunate at our ages that we don't have children. Heat kept a garage door from opening.
I think I'd have two plans. One for a fastest bug-out in car or on foot as required: 0 packing, almost no grabbing. Similar to a basic weekend getaway's supplies stored in the car. Emergency items only in little backpacks or bags, including pull-on boots or heavy shoes, in a closet near the door. I wouldn't spend much money at all on it, but a pair of fire protective blankets stuffed in the boots would be nice for running through wind-borne cinders. All very basic and could be there all the time and mostly forgotten about. Living in SoCal taught us to always grab a case of water for the car as needed when shopping. Used to have a little paper notebook with contact information and passwords. Stupid, but at the moment I can't remember any of our kids' phone numbers completely. I never dial them.
And for more time to get away, a plan with a list. My purse! Not the time to forget that. Our phones and tablets and charge cords. Interesting to realize, most of our documentation's actually on line now. Inconvenient not to have it all complete and on paper in a nice folder, but the lamp on my side of our bed that my mother in law gave me 45 years ago is far more important. Family pictures (which actually should be replicated and stored on the cloud now, available to everyone) and any special jewelry. Favorite paintings and other irreplacables that say home to us would be above almost all practical items on my list. The stuff kept in the car would do for clothes if we found we were running out of time.
Of course insurance. Our home isn't nearly as architecturally special as yours, but we have replacement cost, and, like you, once the debris was hauled away we'd still have fine land to rebuild on.
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